I'm assuming that from lack of a thread about this coming out soon (yep, I did a search) that this version of "Meet The Feebles" must be.... wrong.... somehow. I mean, Jef Films? Anyone know anything about this particular release?

I'v been wanting to see this for a long time without spending 20 bucks for a shitty ass dvd.

I think that's pretty much how most people have seen it.....by spending $20 bucks on the previous dvd releases that are now out of print.

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I've seen this DVD released by about 3 different companies (Dead Alive Productions, and a couple of others) It's always been an identical transfer from what is obviously the same source. I expect that Jef films will be doing the same thing. Just dubbing the existing source material.

I have no idea about the legal status of this, but I wouldn't expect any miracles from this release. It'll be mediocre at best, and probably very questionable from a rights standpoint.

On the same topic, I have to ask... why would Anchor Bay be "sitting" on the rights to this. Seems to me that sometime within the whole LotR juggernaut or during the King Kong release would have been a logical time to put this out, no? Why not release it?

I still contend to this day that if the New Line execs had seen this movie (or a few of PJ's early others), we would never have had the LOTR trilogy . . .

Actually, I'd be awfully surprised if they didn't. Very few executives would commit $300 million and a year and a half production time without screening everything the director had done. And since he'd only made like four films at that point, screening his entire output wouldn't have been that difficult.

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Actually, I'd be awfully surprised if they didn't. Very few executives would commit $300 million and a year and a half production time without screening everything the director had done. And since he'd only made like four films at that point, screening his entire output wouldn't have been that difficult.

I'd be shocked if they had looked at his earlier stuff (Feebles, Bad Taste, Braindead). I think you're giving Hollywood execs far too much credit to assume that the people signing the checks and making the decisions would sit down and screen a director's entire catalog.

If that were the case, Kevin Smith would never have been signed on to write that Superman script.

Actually, I'd be awfully surprised if they didn't. Very few executives would commit $300 million and a year and a half production time without screening everything the director had done. And since he'd only made like four films at that point, screening his entire output wouldn't have been that difficult.

Maybe, but I think it was mainly Heavenly Creatures and his Oscar nomination that let him get his foot in the door.

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Peter Jackson met with New Line in the 80s following the success of Bad Taste at some international festivals; with the possible view of him doing A Nightmare On Elm St entry. That fell through however.

Regarding Jef Films as being a bootleg company, I can actually tell you that's not the case. I've authored several DVDs for them and know they bought the rights, not always exclusive, to those films.
Regarding their prints being crap...yup. They were often from old Pay TV 1" reels or other bad archival materials. Sometimes, as you say, they even came from VHS.
Not illegal, just cheaply done.

Regarding Jef Films as being a bootleg company, I can actually tell you that's not the case. I've authored several DVDs for them and know they bought the rights, not always exclusive, to those films.
Regarding their prints being crap...yup. They were often from old Pay TV 1" reels or other bad archival materials. Sometimes, as you say, they even came from VHS.
Not illegal, just cheaply done.

What about the White Dog release? And Accion Mutante? and Rabid dogs? Those 3 were clearly bootlegs. Jef Films didn't have any distribution rights to any of those films.

I'm surprised that some of Pj's older films haven't been given amazing new editions post-LotR. I was sure we'd see a full-on SE of Braindead seeing as how that was his most popular title. I've never been a fan of Feebles, really, but I'd still like to have a shiny edition of it.

What about the White Dog release? And Accion Mutante? and Rabid dogs? Those 3 were clearly bootlegs. Jef Films didn't have any distribution rights to any of those films.

Exactly, Jef Films is definitely a bootleg company and steal most of their transfers from old VHS releases or foreign DVD's. Beware of the other aliases they go under such as Substance, Televista, and New Star... maybe some others. It's all the same big bootleg operation.